Pacing Guide Creation Study

Overview

SchoolVault was a tool designed to aid teachers and their students in preparing for the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) standardized tests. Created by multiple Colorado school districts, SchoolVault allowed teachers to create student assessments and monitor their progress throughout the year while allowing students a preview of the testing environment.

This specific study is on the usability testing performed for “Pacing Guide” creation. A pacing guide is a calendar-based timeline created by the district from the Colorado Academic Standards. It lists specific knowledge and skill indicators, called “Evidence Outcomes,” that teachers are expected to cover. These individual EOs are grouped into larger “Expectations”, as defined by the Colorado Department of Education.

Details

Usability Testing

We created a test design outlining the procedure and participant instructions, assigning participants a task wherein upon completion they would be assigned their next task. By giving them one task at a time it made it easier to record time on task.

Test participants were asked to provide feedback on the new Pacing Guide creation workflow within SchoolVault. To evaluate the usability of the current iteration test participants were asked to complete a series of tasks on two different mockups, one in InVision and the other on the existing site version.

We recorded the testing sessions and revisited the recordings to document the time on task. We used the time on task in combination with how they answered questions to assess which workflow was faster and easier for teachers to use. Version 3 tested fastest per task and had the most positive feedback from participants.